By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star columnist

Randall Terry doesn’t like growing old.

The firebrand anti-abortionist has hit the big 5-0 and says he detests its achy effects. You’d never know by watching him lately.

Terry criss-crossed the country in July, planting himself alongside provocative banners. His 12-city tour ended in Washington, where the older but not necessarily wiser Terry put on the kind of dog-and-pony show he was known for in decades gone by. Outside the Senate, he fulminated against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Terry had written a pamphlet for the occasion, and it depicted Sotomayor with half her face skeletal. Conservative senators’ refusal to filibuster the nomination, he wrote, was a “bow in abject obedience to the Angel of Death.” Press advisories sent to D.C. media had told reporters what to expect: “In addition to women in black, coffins filled with ‘blood’-covered fetal dolls will be present, as well as an audio tape of a newborn crying.” Oh, Randall! That’s so ’80s.

That decade was Terry’s heyday. At the helm of his anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, he led blockades at abortion clinics nationwide. A Pied Piper with a quick wit — which he hasn’t lost; he’s an entertaining interview — he enticed followers to protest, even at the risk of being dragged off to jail. In those days the money just rolled in. Operation Rescue took in $1 million in 1989.

But then came the backlash. RICO laws were applied against groups that tried to shut down abortion clinics with their protests. Civil suits were filed against Terry and his merry band. In May, memories of Terry’s era were revived with the murder of late-term abortion doctor George Tiller in Wichita.

Tiller’s clinic had long been Terry’s favorite target. And Terry couldn’t help himself from calling a news conference after the murder so he could preen for one last time at Tiller’s expense. But, as Terry is correct to point out, for years now there has been virtually no violence at clinics.

He should know. Increased jail time and other legal maneuvers were put in place largely because of him. He was repeatedly jailed and faced steep civil fines, eventually filing for bankruptcy in an attempt to shield dwindling assets. But something else happened. The anti-abortion movement changed tactics.

Crusading conservative politicians, such as former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, began to press abortion doctors over supposed legal infractions great and small.

Meanwhile, not only the abortion rate but the actual number of abortions performed in the U.S. declined precipitously. Several generations of women now have had contraception readily available. Next to the unpopular choice of abstinence, that’s the most effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place, and therefore abortions. In this context, it’s no surprise that Terry’s anti-Sotomayor protest fell flat.

The nominee isn’t as compellingly evil as Terry wishes to believe. It’s not clear that Sotomayor is a lock for maintaining the court’s 5-4 split in favor of Roe v. Wade. She wrote an opinion that supported the constitutional right to sue by anti-abortion protesters.

And a 2002 Sotomayor opinion upheld the Bush administration’s ban on funding organizations that promote or provide abortions overseas.

Where does that leave Terry? Well, lots of people I talk to in the anti-abortion movement run for the hills when he comes on the scene. I second that emotion.

Years ago, while reporting at a protest, I saw an anti-abortion activist dressed in green medical scrubs run through a crowd waving a bloody fetus, screaming about dead babies. I was horrified. Police said later it was a pig fetus. I still feel revolted. I remember thinking, “These folks are on my side of the argument?” Thank God those days are over. If Terry truly desires a second act, a reincarnation for himself, he might try learning a few new tricks.

To reach Mary Sanchez, call 816-234-4752 or send e-mail to